New York City Estate Planning Lawyers

Office Information

260 Madison Ave 16th floor

New York, NY 10016

212-661-2480

Hours of Operation

Monday: 8:30am – 5:00pm

Tuesday: 8:30am – 5:00pm

Wednesday: 8:30am – 5:00pm

Thursday: 8:30am – 5:00pm

Friday: 8:30am – 5:00pm

Have you considered who will oversee your medical and financial decisions if you become ill or incapacitated? Do you have a plan to allocate your hard-earned assets to your family, friends, or business associates while protecting them from taxes and creditors? At Pierro, Connor & Strauss, we prepare customized estate plans that preserve your wealth for future generations and help loved ones avoid the costly, time-consuming probate process.

Estate planning is not just for the super-wealthy or older adults moving toward retirement. Nearly every adult has an estate, regardless of size or complexity. From essential services like wills and trusts to more extensive legal solutions for business owners and high-asset clients, our New York estate planning lawyers provide customized plans to reflect your current and future needs.

A solid estate plan takes the guesswork out of your healthcare and finances and gives you and your loved ones peace of mind, knowing your wishes will be fulfilled. Our team of New York City attorneys located on Madison Avenue serves clients in Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as Westchester. Our Garden City and Ronkonkoma office are easily accessible by residents of Long Island.

Meet Pierro, Connor & Strauss

In 1999, attorney Louis W. Pierro founded the firm to provide compassionate legal counsel for clients with estate planning, long-term care, special needs, guardianship, and business succession needs. As the child of a parent with Alzheimer’s, Pierro saw firsthand the difficulties family members face when navigating issues that arise when a loved one is unable to make critical decisions on their own.

Today, Pierro and his partners Aaron E. Connor and Frank E. Hemming along with their legal staff remain committed to creating practical solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients. Unlike other firms that spread themselves thin covering a wide range of unrelated practice areas, our central focus is on estate planning and elder law. That’s why you can trust we are current on the latest legislation and tax changes that may impact your estate.

“In our firm, it’s not about the transaction, it’s about the people: the way we treat our clients. It’s not about signing papers and sending you on your way. We bring you into our legal family and grow together. An estate plan is an evolving entity and requires updating on a periodic basis; we pride ourselves on our follow-through, making sure the assets are labeled properly, trusts are funded correctly and that your documents evolve with you as your life circumstances change.”

—Tommaso Marasco, Associate Attorney

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Estate Planning, Trust Planning, and Elder Law Services

You are wise to document what happens to your assets and possessions when you pass away while minimizing taxes, legal fees, and avoiding probate for your heirs. A high-quality estate plan accomplishes this and more by:

Establishing a will, power of attorney, health care proxy and disposition of remains appointment (“The Core Four”)
Creating trusts to avoid probate or protect assets from the exorbitant costs of long-term care. We work with you to determine their structure, including the assets, grantors, trustees, and beneficiaries involved.
Naming a guardian for minor children in the event that you are incapacitated or deceased.
Providing for the transfer of your business when you retire or become disabled, incapacitated, or deceased.
Providing for family members with special needs without disqualifying them from federal benefits and services.
Making arrangements for disability, long-term care, or life insurance to pay for care and other expenses after an illness or death.

It is important to note that estate plans are subject to change. They should be updated as your financial situation evolves or when you experience a significant life change, like a marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child or grandchild. Pierro, Connor & Strauss, LLC is always available to review and revise existing estate plans as your needs and goals evolve.

Peter Strauss | Tom Marasco | Lou Pierro | Anthony Khatchoui | Verley Brown

Estate Planning and the Core Four

What is Estate Planning?

The primary focus of traditional estate planning is the orderly and systematic transfer of one’s wealth to heirs and beneficiaries. Modern estate planning, however, has had to expand that focus to cover the varied and complex issues that one faces in our current society.

The more you understand about the estate planning process, the better your chances will be to effectively plan for retirement; provide for your family; minimize the risks associated with aging; reduce costs and taxes; and dispose of your assets in the manner you see fit.

What is a Power of Attorney?

Through a Power of Attorney (also referred to as a “POA”), you can appoint another individual to transact business in your name. A General Power of Attorney gives an agent, known as your “Attorney-in- Fact,” the authority to make banking, real estate, and all other financial transactions in your name. Without it, your spouse or family member would be unable to speak to your mortgage holder, credit card companies, utility providers, and others regarding accounts held in only your name.

With the current statutory short form power of attorney in New York, you can authorize your agent with the ability to make gifts, designate beneficiaries or jointly title an account. This gifting authority allows the agent to make gifts in the amount of $5,000 per year, establish trusts and do further asset protection and tax planning on your behalf. If, for example, you are incapacitated in a hospital or nursing home, the gifting authority could enable your agent to protect your funds from being forfeited to the cost of care or to move funds to qualify you for Medicaid coverage.

What is a Health Care Proxy?

One duty which cannot be performed by an Attorney-in-Fact through the Power of Attorney is health care decision-making. If you wish to have someone available to make health care decisions in the event that you are unable to do so yourself, you should also consider executing a Health Care Proxy or Living Will.

A Health Care Proxy is an advance directive designed to allow the person of your choosing make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so. In contrast to the POA, there can only be one primary health care agent (with as many alternates as you wish). In the event that you become incapacitated or incompetent, as determined by your physician, your health care agent would be authorized to make any decisions regarding treatment which you, yourself, could have made if competent

What is a Will?

One of the most common forms of Estate Planning tools is a Will. Simply, a Will is a legal declaration by which you can name one or more persons to manage your estate and provide for the transfer of your property at death. There are many benefits to a having a properly drafted Will.

What is a DORA?

An Appointment of Agent to Control Disposition of Remains (“DORA”) is a document that takes effect upon your death when the Health Care Proxy terminates. It provides a means of conveying burial instructions to the named agent, along with any post-death wishes, in a legally binding document, other than in a Will, which is usually not read until a probate proceeding has begun and the burial has already occurred. Pre-planned funeral arrangements can be used in conjunction with the DORA.

Most importantly, litigation over one’s remains can be avoided with a DORA, giving those left behind guidance and peace of mind. Public Health Law § 4201(2) provides that one can designate, in writing, a person who shall have the unique legal right to control the disposition of one’s remains.

Meet the Partners of Pierro, Connor & Strauss, LLC

Louis W. Pierro, Esq.

Founding Partner

Because his mother had Alzheimer’s, Mr. Pierro is well aware of the devastation such a disease can wreak on a family. He is a regular speaker across the nation on legal topics that deal with elder law, estate planning, and business planning. He is also a Founder of ElderCounsel, a national membership organization of Elder Law and Special Needs law firms, where he now serves as a consultant.

Most recently, he founded ApolloCare, LLC, a business integrating home care coordination with connected home health technology, providing seniors, families, and caregivers unique opportunities to live independently in their own homes.

Aaron E. Connor, Esq.

Managing Partner

As the head of the firm’s Long-Term Care Planning Department, Mr. Connor advises clients on how best to preserve assets for themselves and their families. One of his focus areas is handling complex trust and estate litigation matters and assisting clients in securing their fair share of an inheritance through discovery, negotiation, and litigation.

Additionally, he utilizes sophisticated estate planning techniques in the establishment of estate tax avoidance vehicles and completing charitable giving in the most tax-efficient manner.

Frank E. Hemming, III, Esq.

Partner

Frank Hemming joined Pierro, Connor & Strauss in 2016 as an Associate Attorney and was promoted to Senior Associate. Due to his achievements in the field of long-term care and Medicaid planning as well as his leadership and recognition among colleagues and clients, Frank was named a Partner in 2024.

He concentrates his practice on helping clients prepare and file both community and chronic care Medicaid applications.

Services for Business Owners, High Net Worth Estates, and More

Here is an overview of additional services the New York City estate planning attorneys at Pierro, Connor & Strauss provide.

Business Succession

For some clients, their business is their most valuable asset. We help you choose and form the business entity that makes sense for your needs. We draft and structure operations, partnerships, and shareholder agreements to protect your interests as your company grows.

Our Corporate and Business Planning Department also oversees the legalities of business succession to ensure a smooth transition of companies after a sale or upon the business owner’s retirement, disability, or death.

High-Net-Worth Estate Planning

If you have accumulated considerable assets during your lifetime, you’ll want to preserve and pass them down to loved ones in the future. High-asset portfolios require a sophisticated approach to protect wealth and mitigate tax liabilities. Because we represent New York City-based clients, we focus on building an estate plan that avoids the estate tax cliff and maximizes estate and gift tax exceptions.

Updating Your Estate Plan

Making Changes to Your Estate Plan

The executor is required to carry out your wishes as you have indicated in your estate planning documents. This person does not have a lot of ability to interpret and second-guess your instructions, even if you have verbally made your wishes known.

Never try to change a will by simply writing in the margins, crossing out words, lines or sections of the original will. Not only does this create confusion, potential ambiguity and will contests, but making handwritten changes could invalidate your entire will. By law, to change your will, you must either make a new executed and witnessed will or add a signed and witnessed addition, called a codicil, to the existing will. If you are revoking your will, you should make a written declaration that you intend to revoke the old will.

What to Do with Your Estate Plan

Think for a few moments about the “what ifs” we face if you became incapacitated or died today.

Would your spouse, family and fiduciaries know what to do?
Would they know where to find your estate planning and health care documents?
Do they know who should be notified?
Do they know who your attorney, accountant and financial planner are?
If you own a business, do they know what to do to keep it operating?

You don’t have to tell your family everything about your assets right now. But it is very important to have an organized Estate Plan, and to let your family and fiduciaries know where to find it when they need it.

Give copies of your signed health care documents to your physician and designated agent. Keep documents such as titles, insurance policies, estate plan, health care documents, funeral policies and other important paperwork in a safe place such as a fireproof safe. If kept in a safe deposit box, your family may not be able to gain access without a court order. You may also want to give a copy to your fiduciary or at least go over the main provisions with him or her.

PALMS Document Management

The Professional Advisors Lifetime Management System (PALMS) is an innovative technology platform offered by Pierro, Connor & Strauss that stores and manages your estate planning tools in one place. As a PALMS member, you have an account on our secure web server where you can access vital documents 24-7 from anywhere in the world with a Wi-Fi connection.

PALMS offers a user-friendly online dashboard that displays all your legal, financial, and estate planning information, including scanned legal and financial documents, for easy access. You can also view your personalized net worth statement, which you and your legal advisors can update quickly and easily at any time.

Your PALMS membership also includes a comprehensive annual meeting with your estate planning attorney at Pierro, Connor, Strauss LLC, as well as ongoing insights and recommendations to strengthen and secure your estate moving forward.

PALMS makes estate planning simple and convenient. View a sample account here.

Working With Our Firm

At Pierro, Connor & Strauss, we know estate planning can often be an emotional process. That is why we assist you with expertise and compassion at every step of your journey. Developing personalized strategies to meet our client’s needs and goals is incredibly rewarding, which is why we do what we do.

When you create a comprehensive estate plan, you ease the burden on your loved ones. Estate plans help reduce uncertainty, conflict, and unnecessary time and costs when someone dies. Call or connect online to learn more about estate planning services or to schedule a free consultation with a New York City estate planning attorney at Pierro, Connor & Strauss. From our NYC office, we represent clients across Manhattan and all of New York State.

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New York City Estate Planning Attorneys